Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center

Background

Dr. Deborah A. Belchis is an associate professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Belchis was the first to recognize the pathologic changes of familial Amish hypercholanemia. She also studied the retinoblastoma pathway in osteosarcoma and developed an NIH-funded grading system for interstitial cystitis.

Dr. Belchis earned her M.D. and Ph.D. at the Albany Medical College of Union University. She completed an anatomic and clinical pathology residency at the University of Rochester Medical Center, as well as a medical internship at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. She also completed a cytopathology fellowship at University of North Carolina Hospitals.

Prior to joining the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2012, Dr. Belchis was in private practice in Baltimore, where she served as the pathology department chief/director of a number of anatomic and clinical pathology labs. She also served as Sinai Hospital’s Cancer Oncology Group institutional pathologist.

A surgical pathologist and cytopathologis, Dr. Belchis specializes in cytology, the study of cells. Her interests include pediatric tumors and pulmonary pathology, and she is currently concluding the clinico-pathologic description of a novel pneumothorax syndrome.

She has published more than 30 academic journal articles. Dr. Belchis is American Board of Pathology-certified in pediatric pathology, cytopathology, and anatomic and clinical pathology.

Research & Publications

Research Summary

A surgical pathologist and cytopathologist, Dr. Belchis is interested in defining and expanding the role of cytopathology in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

This work includes refining the panels of immunohistochemical stains to classify diseases such as malignancies or infections, performing molecular studies for targeted therapy, and identifying the cytologic features of newly described entities.

She conducts collaborative research with the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Division of Molecular Pathology, and Department of Medicine and International Health.